Brainstorm Cafe

can i cast a vote for common sense and simple human decency? (c) mark somple 2018

I used to think the united states was the land of the free and home of the brave. as I look around more today, It seems more like a vibe of, “land of the scared and home of the afraid.” it is really sad because we really do have a lot to be thankful for, yet, where is the joy and happiness with the country that has much?

when one is persecuted, the palette appears to be black and white with the truth. when one is doing the persecuting, the palette is many shades of gray. I lament my journalism and photojournalism friends and don’t even ask them the question of, “what is the truth? is there any truth in media/politics lately?”

for every person that says, “Russia ruined our election” I simply think back to the democratic leaks from within their own party and their own actions that didn’t seem very democratic. I remember 16 or 17 men on a stage with the Republican party where everyone was laughing at one man. today listen in disbelief to our president speaking and how he speaks, and then I think of the 70 or 80 billion dollars, our intelligence communities spend in the interests of the country.

Do people think the united states is all saintly choir boys that do no evil?

so basically, everyone who is guilty of misbehaving, is simply pointing thier fingers of everyone else with a shocked look upon thier faces, "how could they do that!" yet, everyone did the exact same thing with a slightly different flavor and is shocked, aghast, and in an uproar? why can't everyone simply take a step back and ask, "why are we all behaving so sleazy, yet, we keep branding ourselves as righteous and the keeper of freedoms and democracies - yet - only if we have control of it!"

wouldn't it be less expensive and better for people to look inside themselves first and worry about that, than to simply point a finger and blame everyone else? while i realize this is not a simple thing to do...wouldn't the long term of the planet benefit from this?

perhaps that is why the idea of being and living in nature appeals to me. as you get to deal with the elements and live within the balance of whatever it brings. as we get more into megacities and the construction of high levels of imbalance with citizens – no matter what scenario I play out with technology and smart devices infiltrating life – what I don’t see is the pathway for people to not be living inside some controlled system. in and of itself, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however human beings have proven time and time again, that they don’t want to admit that perhaps they aren’t so perfect, don’t really know it all, and spend little time fixing what is broken inside themselves.

this will be the overall cause of the breakdown from humanity to a potential path of insanity where humans treat each other with fear and suspicion and the entire premise of the idea of the reason for the declaration of independence, constitution, bill of rights….Gettysburg address…I have a dream…

well…sadly, all of that can easily be taken away by simply getting people not to think, but rather simply follow and forget to ask, “why?”

I think this was triggered by two moments yesterday. one was in a parking garage, where I was 12 minutes over an hour free parking. I looked at the guy, who was just doing his job, but he resembled more of an autonomous robot – yet – he was a human being sitting inside a tiny little house collecting money all day. it is a job that can easily be automated and one day will. I wondered if the new systems would have any wiggle room or ability to give a grace period if the person was 1 minute over the hour – or would the world be so legalistic with the computers?

another near miss was mentioning to someone I would be back online in 2 hours and I got there in 2 hours and 4 minutes. I do realize time is valuable and I respect that and I also realize I am human and drove for a bit. was I late for the call? yes, 4 minutes. the other person has a hissy fit, yet, they seem to forget they were the one MIA for the previous times to meet.

it all had me think of the coming robot-intelligence where I had to laugh that Microsoft is saying we need to regulate facial recognition. I wager they have the patents they want our government to use, no? that is worth a great deal of money in our ever increasing surveillance society.

I watch people lock their doors, secure their stuff, walk around in fear and the inability to smile or say hello. even in the gym, I go to, there is a racial issue where the foreign students form clique via nationality, the blacks form another via color, and I am the odd white dude saying hello and getting the strangest looks. maybe the owner will be there today and I can ask, “what is the backstory of the folks in this city?”

and yet, there was a man who I am guessing is from Thailand or Vietnam, who I simply said hello to…upon him leavening he stopped by with a giant smile on his face, “thank you so much for saying hello to me.”

here is a guy, most likely an advanced degree student far away from his homeland and family who I understand all too well what it is like to be an expat and an immigrant. it can be very hard as you look, speak, think, and talk differently than the norm.

I smiled back, “see you next time!”

today I will try to talk to one of the brothers and ask him about the social climate, say, “Namaste” to the Indian students and have one not look at me with strange disbelief, and who knows…there is a lady that stands out on a bridge waving all day…maybe I will ask to take her photo and ask her what her name is, and what is her story?

why live in fear? if you think of the 100 most fearful thoughts you had and wondered about in your mind in your life…how many came true? not many right? how many didn’t happen? most of them.

so why live in worry and fear?

i do worry that the future with our bot society will be very intollerant and a stern taskmaster about legalism and rules. i pray i am wrong.

care to join me for a coffee?

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